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FC: Your dad in jail. Boss Pendergast. Tell us about that.

GY: Oh, this was a wonderful story that he repeated so often. And it was... my dad was a very serious diabetic. And he was throughout his life, and it eventually was the thing, the disease that really took his life. But during the time that, the sixteen months that he was in the Leavenworth penitentiary, he was housed in the hospital unit of the prison. And Boss Pendergast, Mr. Pendergast, was his bedmate in the prison. And apparently they became pretty close, and became good friends. And Mr. Pendergast knew that my dad was an expert in judo. And he used to tell my dad -- and my dad, of course, would repeat it -- oh, many stories over the years. He'd say, "Kubota, when this is all over, you come to Kansas City and I'll give you a job as my bodyguard." And I don't know that my father ever seriously considered going to Kansas City to be anybody's bodyguard, but his story would continue. And he said, you know, what happened was that the day President Roosevelt died, Mr. Pendergast came up to him and said, "Kubota, I'll be leaving here in a few days." And I think my dad was rather politically unsophisticated, because he didn't know what that really meant. But a few days later, President Truman became the president of the country. And Dad said, "I remember looking up from the hospital ward down into the yard of the prison, and a huge black limousine came up with two women in furs, And Mr. Pendergast left soon thereafter." And my dad said, "I guess it was, one of the ladies was his wife and the other one was his daughter." And he, at that point, the story he wanted to tell us, and the point he wanted to make was the political power that people had in this country. Because I think that it amazed him. That someone, within a matter of days after the death of a president, and the ascension of another person as president, would be released from a federal prison. Of course, my dad never went to Kansas City. Mr. Pendergast died soon after. So we never know, we'll never know what really happened, what would have happened.

FC: Tell us young folks who've never, who don't know who Boss Pendergast is, who was Boss Pendergast?

GY: Well, as I understand it, Boss Pendergast was the man that brought Harry Truman through the Kansas City machine, into political power and prominence. And he, Mr. Pendergast, was put in prison for some form of income tax invasion. And it probably some political ploy that was played out in those days. But it was very, very clear that once Harry Truman became President of the United States, that he would release from prison his benefactor, his mentor, and part of the machine.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1993, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.